Significant portions of Washington’s new nurse staffing law (HB 1714) take effect on Jan. 1, 2019. As required by law, hospitals need to submit their nurse staffing plans to the Department of Health (DOH) by Jan. 1. Nurse staffing plans should be submitted to DOH here.
This new law is extremely important to hospitals and nurses across the state. WSHA, the Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA), SEIU 1199NW and UFCW 21 formed the Nurse Staffing Coalition in early 2018 to ensure successful implementation of the new law. The coalition has worked in partnership to develop a toolkit to support hospitals and staffing committees in being successful under the new law.